Science! at Caldera

Though the Seattle acoustic duo Science! is only three years old, its members — singers and guitarists Jim Elenteny and Justin Stang — have known each other for 20 years.

Ian Hand

Though the Seattle acoustic duo, Science! is only three years old, its members — singers and guitarists Jim Elenteny and Justin Stang — have known each other for 20 years.

"We both went to high school on Long Island," Stang says. "I moved out (to Seattle) about eight years ago and he moved out about four years ago.

"I didn't even know he was moving until he got here. I saw a social media update and was like, 'Hey, you're in Seattle? I'm in Seattle! Let's get together.' "

The duo, who had played in bands together as kids, found it easy to start a new project after they reconnected.

"We grew up listening to a lot of American roots music, a lot of jam music and a lot of blues," Stang says. "We were already ahead of most bands in that, when we did reconnect, we were musically on the same page."

Science! will play at 9 p.m. Saturday, June 21, at the Caldera Tap House, 31 Water St. Ashland. The cover costs $5

The band's name evolved from their mutual love of the "Back to the Future" franchise.

"We're big fans, but most of our really good ideas, like Flux Capacitor and Delorean, were already band names," Stang says. "After a few hours of going back and forth, we said, 'Let's just go with something that's really simple, truthful, universal and probably not trademarked.' "

The duo released its debut, self-titled album in October 2012 and were able to enlist the services of Blind Melon drummer Glen Graham.

"Blind Melon was one of my favorite bands growing up," Stang says. "We did a big crowd-funding campaign and were able to raise enough money to cover recording costs and get Glen on the record."

Stang says that he simply reached out through email to connect with Graham.

"I never actually met him," Stang says. "I sent him an email and he said he liked the music and would be psyched to do it. I'm never afraid to email anyone because the worst that they could say is no. I get a lot of nos, but sometimes, someone will say yes and you end up making something really cool."

Science! is at work on their next album — tentatively titled "Hold On To Your Hats ('Cause We're Going Down)" and set to be released in the fall. The first single, "Shuksan," was released in April through the 52x52 Project by London Tone Music Group, the record label of Seattle's London Bridge Studios (famous for releases by Pearl Jam, OneRepublic, Fleet Foxes and Alice in Chains).

"(London Tone's) design is to reinvent the recording industry model, which hasn't been working over the years," Stang says. "They're bringing 52 different artists into the studio to record and release a different song each week for an entire year.

"They can put out a lot of different songs in different styles without having to put all their eggs in one artist and one song. We're proud to be part of it and hope to build a good relationship with these guys."